Some Dare Call It Treason: Wake Up
America!by Dr. Robert Bowman, USAF Ret.www.dissidentvoice.org
April 27, 2004

I
am a member of
Veterans For Peace, an organization of thousands of combat veterans. All
of us have put our life on the line for this country. Most of us opposed the
recent invasion of Iraq. We also opposed the first Gulf War, and the
sanctions that followed. We opposed the slaughter of fleeing Iraqis on the
Road to Basra. We opposed the use of Depleted Uranium munitions. And we
opposed the lies upon which the first Gulf War was based. But there was one
good thing about that first Gulf War. It ended. And without a wholesale
invasion of Iraq. Why?

Here's what the first
President Bush wrote about that in his memoirs:

Trying to eliminate Saddam would have incurred
incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably
impossible. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule
Iraq. There was no viable exit strategy we could see, violating another of
our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a
pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and
occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations mandate,
would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression
that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United
States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile
land.

My brothers and sisters, it
is just too darn bad his son can't read!

I've been severely
criticized for speaking out in opposition to this war. So have you,
probably. We're told that we're aiding and abetting the enemy. We're told
that we should support the president no matter what. We're told that
patriotism demands that we support the war. They say that we're abusing the
freedoms that our troops are in the Middle East defending. They say we
should be ashamed to be protesting while the troops are in the desert
protecting our right to do so.

Well I say, Hogwash!

I feel an affinity for the
troops over there in Iraq. They are my comrades in arms. I admire their
sense of honor and sacrifice. I understand why some of them believe they
should be there. They have neither the experience nor the wisdom to see past
the lies they have been told. The truth is, they are not over there
protecting our freedoms. Our freedoms are not under attack from Saddam
Hussein or the remnants of his Baathist party. Our freedoms are under attack
by John Ashcroft. They are threatened by John Poindexter. They are trampled
by Donald Rumsfeld. They are disdained by Dick Cheney. And they are not even
understood by George W. Bush. The battle to preserve our freedoms is not
taking place in Baghdad and Tikrit. It is taking place in Central Park in
New York City, in Lafayette Park in Washington DC, in Ghirardelli Park in
San Francisco, and in River Front Park in Melbourne, Florida. The front
lines go right down US 1 and up New Haven Avenue.

It is we, here at home, who
are the foot soldiers battling to preserve our cherished freedoms by
exercising them, in spite of opposition and ridicule. It is we who protect
our civil rights through speaking out. We are the Minutemen sounding the
alarm against tyranny. We are upholding the spirit of the American
Revolution. We are preserving the freedoms that the troops in the desert
have a right to come back to. The troops getting shot at in Iraq are not
protecting us. We are protecting them, and their honor and their freedoms.
We have just completed a forced march through hostile territory to defend
their freedoms and ours, and the ideals America was founded on. We are
protecting this nation by speaking truth to power. Let us do it loudly and
fearlessly and courageously and joyfully, for we are the true patriots!

Here is the truth that we
proclaim. This war has nothing to do with national security or freedom or
democracy or human rights or protecting our allies or weapons of mass
destruction or defeating terrorism or disarming Iraq. It has to do with
money. It has to do with oil. And it has to do with raw imperial power. It
is based on a pack of lies. And it is wrong. Those who forced this war on an
unwilling world are guilty of flagrantly violating the US Constitution, the
UN Charter, and international law. What they have done is illegal, immoral,
unconstitutional and TREASON.

It's been said that
somewhere in Texas there is a village looking for their idiot. Now that may
be funny, but it misses the point. George W. Bush is not an imbecile. He is
a TRAITOR.

Before this war started, we
knew it would fracture NATO, split the United Nations, separate us from our
allies, and destroy the great nation we inherited from our fathers who died
in World War II. And it has. We knew it would make our beloved country
feared and hated, an outcast from the world community, a pariah among the
peoples, and the number one rogue nation on earth. And it has. It has done
so based on a pack of lies. My sisters and brothers, that is not stupidity.
That is TREASON.

We knew this sadistic
corporate war would incense the Arab world, provide thousands of new Osama
bin Ladens, and enormously increase the terrorist threat. And it has. We
knew it would further endanger the American people and destroy our national
security. And it has. That is not stupidity, it is TREASON.

The cabal of
neoconservatives at the Project For a New American Century who planned this
war (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Perle, Jeb Bush) even before W
became president, knew the American people would not stand for it unless
there was a new Pearl Harbor. 9/11 supplied that. Our government was warned.
They were warned by the Clinton Administration. They were warned by 11 other
countries. And they were specifically warned by an FBI agent that one of
them was planning on flying a hijacked airliner into the World Trade Center.

They not only ignored the
warnings, they made sure no fighter jets were scrambled to stop it. If they
had just done nothing, and allowed normal procedures to be followed, the
Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would
still be alive. This is not stupidity, it is TREASON.

As a combat veteran, I will
not stand idly by and watch our security destroyed by a president who went
AWOL rather than fight in Vietnam. Honor requires that I call this by its
right name. It is TREASON.

As one who has devoted his
life to the security of this country, I will not stand by and watch an
appointed president send our sons and daughters around the world to kill
Arabs for the oil companies without calling it by its right name. It is
TREASON.

I joined the Air Force to
protect our borders and our people, not the financial interests of Folgers,
Chiquita Banana, and Exxon. We've had enough corporate wars. No more Iraqs.
No more El Salvadors. No more Kosovos. No more Colombias. These are not
isolated incidents of stupidity. They are part of a long, bloody history of
foreign policy being conducted for the financial benefit of the wealthy few.
It is a new colonialism. It violates our Constitution. It endangers our
people. And it is TREASON.

As a pilot who flew 101
combat missions in Vietnam, I can tell you that the best thing our
government can do for its combat veterans is to quit making more of them.
Peace is patriotic; a preemptive war is immoral, illegal, unconstitutional,
a war crime, and TREASON. I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United
States against all enemies foreign and domestic. That includes a renegade
president. Wake up, America! It is time for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney,
Donald Rumsfeld, and the whole oil mafia to be removed from office and
indicted for TREASON. We are the people. We are sovereign. We are the
patriots. The whole world is with us. Never allow anyone to intimidate you
into silence. Wake up, America! It's time to speak truth to power. God bless
America, and God save us from the traitors in our government.

Dr. Robert Bowman was a colonel in the US Air Force and was
Director of Advanced Space Programs Development under President Jimmy
Carter. He is Presiding Archbishop, United Catholic Church. He has been
president of the
Institute
for Space and Security Studies since 1982. Before that he was
vice-president of Space Communications Company; manager, Advanced Space
Programs for General Dynamics; and director, Advanced Space Programs
Development for the Department of Defense, directing the "Star Wars"
programs. He is also a progressive populist candidate for President of the
United States. He may be reached via email at:
isss@rmbowman.com. See also his web
site:
http://www.rmbowman.com.